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Have you ever set a big goal — like paying off your mortgage — and then quickly gotten discouraged because it didn’t seem like you were making any progress? Probably it seemed like a whole lot of effort, with little to no return.

That type of situation is discouraging. Often we give up, or even back slide and make things even worse.

But there are ways to make incremental progress feel motivating instead of discouraging.

One way is to simply change your attitude. Actually say things out loud, excitedly, like “I sent another $5 to the mortgage today! I’m making progress!”.

Your brain believes what it hears consistently, especially if you can get some emotion into what you’re saying. And you ARE making progress, so it’s the truth. (Even if you only pick one leaf off a shrub at a time, eventually it will be bare.)

Another way is to use graphs to your advantage. If you make a bar graph that shows your payment amounts in small increments on the y axis (like the example below), you’ll be able to see that you paid more than the month before, that you have been paying regularly and frequently, and that your payments are adding up. Your payments will also look more substantial to you, which will help motivate you.

You can also pie charts like the ones available on the NCN Network to update your progress, although be sure that you literally focus on the portion of the chart that shows as paid when you look at it!

Finally, you can bring back something from preschool and use it to your advantage. Remember making paper chains and tearing one off to count down the days to some big event? (Usually Christmas) Make a chain based on your plans for the year. For example, if you intend to pay an extra $50 to your mortgage each month, make a chain with 12 links in it, each representing $50. Tear one off every time you make the extra $50 payment and watch the chain grow shorter.

The idea is to make even incremental progress visible in a way that helps you FEEL the progress in a positive way.